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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What type of novels became more popular during the war?

2. Which of the following is NOT a major media type that supported the predominant media sources?

3. The compensation from the title of Chapter 15 refers to what?

4. A typical soldier's amount of downtime would best be described as which of the following?

5. How was God related to the war in the political and media interpretation in America?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did media organizations gain access to war zones for their reporters?

2. Why did wartime reporting often fail to capture the realities of warfare?

3. How did soldiers react to the media's presentation of the war?

4. What did front line troops usually believe about depictions of their wartime experiences?

5. Simply stated, what is the policy of "accentuating the positive"?

6. What types of stories would be most likely to be reported on?

7. When were more enduring war novels written and why were they written during this time period?

8. What difficulties did the publishing industry face during the war?

9. How did the media interpret the suffering of the nation's citizenry?

10. What qualities caused an idiom to transfer to enter the general vocabulary?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

High-mindedness dominated thought and writing about the war during its later years. Although not unique to World War II, the author asserts that it reaching its peak during this conflict. American citizens and soldiers had markedly different reactions to this approach.

1) Explain what the author means by "high mindedness."

2) Discuss why high-minded thinking about the war came to dominate in the media. What purpose did this serve?

3) Explain how the American public reacted to the increasing high-mindedness presented to them.

4) Describe the reaction of American soldiers to this increasingly abstract explanation for the war. Why couldn't they relate to these concepts, and what affect did this high-mindedness have on them?

5) Assess overall whether or not an emphasis on high-minded ideal was good or bad for the nation during the war.

Essay Topic 2

Military training was intended to create capable and obedient soldiers. The extreme demands of World War II required military training to be short and intense.

1) Explain the purpose of military training.

2) Describe, according to military thinking of the time, the ideal soldier after he has just completed training.

3) Explain how some of the difficulties of WWII affected military training.

4) Discuss the similarities between military training and public school systems of the 1940s and explain why this similarity existed.

Essay Topic 3

The reading experience of citizens and soldiers alike during the war was bland and uniform. In the media and even in other mediums such as fiction, poetry, and films, there was a tendency towards homogenization that became mind-numbing to many.

1) Discuss the general reading experience of soldiers and citizens during World War II. Explain some of the problems in the publishing industry from an entertainment perspective.

2) Describe the common American soldiers interest in reading and how, why, and when this distraction became common in the ranks.

3) Explain some of the changes in the publishing market that were brought about by the war.

(see the answer keys)

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